How are those knopfler recordings sounding with this set? Are you hearing any sibilance?

I'm hearing the same thing with Knopfler only when he sings a word with an S on the end of it. I guess what I originally thought was sibilance was just something that was there on the recording all along. It's just more pronounced on the M3S.

You were doing quite a bit of switching to compare - have you tried the M3s on both the Speaker A and Speaker B connections? Just grasping at straws here. You should be happy, not frustrated. If you don't like them, send them back.

They're going back. I have no choice but to wait for a refund and try something else. I just have never had an expierience like this when ordering speakers online before. I've ordered several pairs of speakers online. Some really cheap ones and they seemed to have better quality grills than the M3s. How can so much attention be paid to the actual speaker(M3s) and so very little attention be paid to the grills?

Jerry, on the sibilance matter. I returned some items to the library Saturday and while there picked up a Bach organ recording because of a question in another thread. I also thought of your report and picked up the Knopfler 2-disc set "Private Investigations". I listened(I'd never heard him before)to Ss and Ts in particular and heard the normal amount of natural sibilance on my M22s, which should have a nearly identical upper mid-range/lower treble as the M3s. Sibilance is in fact a natural part of our speech, especially on Ss and Ts, and the "sibilance range" is roughly the 4KHz-8KHz octave. A well-recorded disc, played back on good speakers should reproduce this normal amount of sibilance, and that's what I heard.

Why does the appearance matter? I spent $330 for these speakers. I didn't just charge these to my card. I don't have a credit card. I had to save up to get these. I'm not well off. It actually took me quite awhile to save up for these. So appearance matters to me. Everything about the speakers matters to me. I just think that when you spend $330 on something these problems shouldn't keep occuring.

Oh, I know it matters. It matters to me too.

But you've already got written assurance that that part of the equation will be taken care of. Thus, to me, that renders it a non-issue when deciding whether it's the speaker you want in your system.

If you're unhappy with the sound, then by all means. Noone's going to argue with that.

I've had speakers from Polk,Infinity,Cambridge Soundworks, Boston Acoustics, etc. over the years. But I was never really thrilled with them. Something always seemed to be missing from their sound. /quote]

[quote] Several years ago I had a pair of Onix xl-s speakers from AV123. I never liked them and I ended up returning them.

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What's wrong with black? I like all my speakers to be black. I don't like any other color.

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I've always bought cheap budget speakers.

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How are the highs on the M3's as far as sibilance goes? I've had some speakers where for certain artists their voices were very sibilant.

Saw what coming? The defects in the grill and the broken logo don't exactly instill confidence in me with regards to the speaker. I've had lesser quality speakers that I was happy with. I'm not in the habit of returning speakers at all. In fact this is the first time that I've ever had to return speakers.I know that Axiom wants to make it right but I'm out of energy and frankly I don't have much confidence left when it comes to any assurances from Axiom. I appreciate Axioms efforts up until now. They have been wonderful. But what should have been a pleasant expierience has become a marathon of frustration.

I'm also wondering if maybe Axiom is experiencing some problems like every other company is experiencing and they are cost cutting. I just have a feeling that the V3's are perhaps a cheaper made product. Like using plastic on the backside of tweeters instead of metal. Not supplying the pointy tip feet anymore. Lack of proper quality control, etc.